


Someone Pushes Back

by Spillz



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Implied references to past sexual assault, Inspired by Mad Max Series (Movies), Multi, kinda modern anyway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2018-08-27 00:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8379787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spillz/pseuds/Spillz
Summary: "Avatar Aang crashed Appa in a storm and woke up in a melting iceberg to a dying world"When he finally lost his game of chase with Prince Zuko he was dragged to the Fire Nation is chains, but also to people he was destined to meet. People who are willing to do anything for their freedom. People who will bring back balance or die trying.





	1. Not Things

**_The End_ **

 

Aang crashed Appa in a storm as a twelve-year-old boy and woke up in a melting iceberg to a dying world.

The people here spoke of the Avatar with venom on their tongues, the man who had left them and watched the world dry up. The Air Nomads were gone and the Earth Kingdom was nothing but dust and ashes. He’d learned waterbending living in a swamp, but that had burned down long ago. He’d learned earthbending in what remained of Omashu, but the people there had to flee when the firebenders came.

It had been firebenders who scorched the planet on the day of the comet, and they seemed to show no remorse as they roved in gangs across the desert. Fire Lord Ozai had secured a permanent water source in the crater of Palace City and used it to control people of all nations who flocked to him in hope that he might take them up into his safe haven. Aang avoided his territory, but news of his return had spread.

Aang had met Prince Zuko on several occasions and had come away victorious in all of their encounters so far, he had gotten cocky as his bending had improved, which might have been why he went down so easily today.

Zuko had been building up his forces since Aang had fought him last and, while he still had the advantage of air, Zuko had the advantage of surprise. Aang was surrounded before he had even woken Appa and one of Zuko’s men had gotten a clear shot at his knee. He dropped to the ground with a cry, and, as his eyes began to flash blue, he heard a shotgun cock against his head.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you” Zuko warned, jumping down from his truck, swords strapped to his back and a fireball dancing in his hand,  “Not if you’re still set on reincarnation” The glow faded from his eyes and the corners of Zuko’s lips twisted upwards, he nodded at the man who held his gun to Aang’s head “Chain him up Jet, we’re going home”

 

* * *

**_Battle Fodder_ **

 

_“It’s just another supply run.”_

Sokka repeated the thought in his head over and over, trying to behave as though that were true. He dragged his hair into a topknot like any other day. He poked fun at his fellow soldiers and made gallant claims of how he would outshine them like any other day. He resented them and himself deep down like any other day.

But today was not any other day.

General Toph was Ozai’s most prized weapon, the woman with the unfathomable ability to bend metal, who could deflect a bullet or drive a car without gas. Sokka watched as she jumped into the driver’s seat, her pale eyes focused on nothing, but she stared ahead anyway. Sokka was her second in command and the favourite to become a General if he survived long enough. That was looking a lot less likely now.

He climbed on top of the rig, bowing to Ozai in the Fire Nation style, all the while silently seething as the Fire Lord made his speech. Sokka watched as the people crowded underneath the pipes. To him, a supply run meant an uneventful trip, but to them it meant water, it meant life. The dusty, twisted faces of the crowd gazed up at the Fire Lord with a kind of hope that wasn’t often found anymore. Even less often was that hope fulfilled, but sure enough, the pipes were opened and the water did come. Briefly, it fell from the rocks as if it were endless, and perhaps it was.

The stream cut off as soon as it came and the hope was replaced with desperation as the crowd turned on each other, spilling what they had caught in attempts to steal more.

Toph banged on the roof and the soldiers snapped into action like an engine, Sokka went on as normal, but he couldn’t make jokes with the boys today. The boys who fought alongside him would have to die, if not as his hands then Toph’s, boys he lived with and ate with and had almost convinced himself could be his friends. Sokka spat those thoughts out onto the desert sand, he had thought that before he knew the truth, knew that Katara was still alive, knew that he could save her and they could go home.

So Sokka acted as he always did until the rig turned left.

“What’s going on?” a boy Sokka pretended not to know the name of asked. Sokka told him not to doubt a General and checked for the seventeenth time since the rig had started moving how many bullets he had on him; eleven.

Eleven bullets and fifteen soldiers, he had managed more with less.

 

* * *

 

**_One Angry Bullet_ **

 

Neither Li nor Lo were violent women, they had survived the volatility of the Fire Nation through wisdom, knowledge, and an unwavering loyalty, but that loyalty had changed.

You cannot care for girls like a mother, teach them, tell them stories, braid their hair, without creating an attachment. Before the world fell Li and Lo would have each liked daughters of their own and, and although years of struggling to stay sane in the wasteland had altered their priorities, the girls had let them remember that. The love they felt for Ozai's wives was enough to turn them on their nation, enough for them to give up their own lives with the hope that they might save others.

The Wives had left with the blind woman late that night and now, as midday was assaulting the curved glass of the Vault with its heat, Li gripped a sawed-off shotgun and Lo clutched a shard of metal that was to function as a knife. They would kill the Fire Lord, delaying his armies and destroying the notion of his Agni blessed immortality. They would give Toph the head start she so desperately needed and they would most likely be killed even if they succeeded. But they would still succeed, They waited on the bed closest to the door and waited for their chance to finally do right in the world that did not allow such choices often.

The waiting was over.

“Princess! Princess Yue!” Ozai’s voiced echoed fury and fire as he barrelled into the Vault with all the arrogance of a man who thought himself a god.

“Yue is gone,” Li and Lo said in eerie unison. Ozai turned to them, advancing faster than Li could cock the gun.

“The blind one stole her!” Ozai growled

“She didn’t steal any of them!” Lo said

“They begged her to go” Li finished, pulling the trigger, intending those moments to be Ozai’s last. Intending for the earth to be rid of the man who existed to prevent its healing. She was wrong.

He batted the gun to the side, the bullet left the chamber but didn’t embed itself in Ozai’s skull, it veered from its destined course, finding itself instead flying through Lo’s stomach and into the floor of the vault, where Lo quickly joined it.

Li dropped the gun and fell to her knees, hands attempting to hold back the hot blood escaping Lo’s veins with every heartbeat. Sounds Li hadn’t thought she could make ripped their way out of her body and grief she’d long since thought herself numb to slammed into her as Lo’s last words were trapped in her throat as she coughed and choked red. Li found herself in the grasp of the Firelord, apologising to everyone, Lo, the wives, all those who she had failed today, and all the days she had accepted the cruelty of her nation to ensure her own survival.

“I’m sorry” was all she could manage as she was dragged away.

 

* * *

**_A Furious Vexation_ **

 

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Zuko wasn’t supposed to be down here guarding a cage in obscurity, he was meant to be at his father’s right hand, his honour restored at last.

His homecoming had failed at every one of his expectations, Ozai had not even greeted him, nor had Azula. His uncle had welcomed him warmly before relaying the Fire Lord’s orders; he was to watch over the Avatar and ensure that he did not escape his custody.

So here he was, guarding a teenage boy in a pit of cannon fodder soldiers when he heard the drums. Soldiers flooded to the armoury, most of them unnamed and low ranked but there was one face that Zuko knew.

“Jet!” He called “Jet, that’s my sword!” it was the sword he’d brought with him on his search for the Avatar, the two years that he had been a glorified footsoldier and Jet had been his second in command “Jet! I’m your superior!” Zuko said, grabbing the hilt over Jet’s hand

“Not anymore, Prince” Jet jibed, not letting go

“What’s going on, the drums…” Zuko asked, Jet tugged on the hilt and tried to leave but Zuko kept his grip firm

“The Blind Imperator kidnapped Firelord Ozai’s breeders” He explained after a pause. And just like that, Zuko saw a path to honour.

“I’m driving.” He said, yanking the sword from Jet’s grip with renewed motivation

“No, you’re babysitting” Jet jutted his chin towards the Avatar, Zuko turned to the boy in chains. He couldn’t leave him, not with all their best guards out on the road.

“He’s coming too,” Zuko said, both Jet and  the Avatar’s eyes widened, but Jet’s shock was soon replaced with a smile as he clapped Zuko on the back

“Put a jacket over his tattoos and chain him to the car,” He said “Everyone will think he’s a regular prisoner”

Zuko turned to face the avatar, the few months worth of hair on his head more than covered up the arrow there. He looked his real age with hair; less learned and ancient. He was a kid, Zuko knew that, but Zuko also knew what that kid was capable of. He had seen the avatar state, he had lost more soldiers than he liked to think about trying to battle it. It was hard to believe that the boy chained up here, who had begged for the life of his bison over his own, was the same boy who commanded the wrath and power of a thousand lifetimes.

“Come on Avatar,” Zuko said, stepping back into his bending stance “We’re going on a field trip” And with that, Zuko sent a blast of fire into the lock and the cage popped open.

Zuko had freed the one thing he was supposed to keep, but he was foolish enough to think a desperate man could be trapped twice.

 

* * *

**_A Lovely Day_ **

 

Toph could feel the hostiles approach before any soldier could see them.

“Sokka, Two o’clock!” she barked, listening as he relayed the warning to the crew

“Toph, they’re signalling Iroh and  Zhao,” Sokka said through the sun hatch, Toph could hear sweat dripping onto the metal, he was scared “What do I tell the other boys?”

“It’s backup,” Toph said, the Rhinos wouldn’t be happy to see them followed, but there was no going back now, Li and Lo must have failed. Toph breathed deep and tried to focus on the earth around her, finding her advantage. The sand was mostly tough, the rocks were on the horizon and the palace city was disappearing into the distance, these are things she already knows. What she finds feels like a blessing, like a sign, that for once in her life things are going her way. Blowing wildly and blurring up the horizon was her tactical advantage.

She could lose a whole party’s worth of troops a sandstorm.

She changed her course, aiming for the blur of earth in her vision a few miles out

“Sokka get in the cab” she called, he didn't have to be asked twice, dropping through the sunroof to sit beside her.

“We’re not going into that!” he said, once he realised the Toph had no intention of avoiding the wall of sand and lightning ahead of them “That’s insane!”

“I don’t remember asking” Toph replied, pressing down on the accelerator and blocking out Sokka’s protests, it didn’t matter now, they were almost at the sandstorm.

“Toph!” Sokka shouted, pulling her towards him as a bullet sped past the window “Fire Nation boys, not hostiles” he explained, Toph scowled cursing her own distraction.

“They caught up fast!” She remarked, Li should have at least been able to wound the Fire Lord and get them to get a real head start. Toph ducked to give Sokka a clear line of sight and boosted the rig, she couldn’t afford to get caught up in what-ifs. Passing a pair of goggles to Sokka she pulled her scarf over her face. It was time to lose the war party.

Sand was all around them, she could feel it through her closed eyes as it scratched at her hands. Sokka’s heart rate next to her was the highest she’d ever heard it and the other soldiers were falling from the rig like flies.

“Above” She yelled, unsure how well Sokka could hear over the storm “One above!”

There was a gunshot, and then a thud, and then the body rolled from the rig.

There were a few stragglers left, Toph could feel them clinging to the back or crawling up towards the cab. Sokka’s gun was loaded, and in minutes the rig was empty, just her and Sokka and the storm.

“Sokka, you drive,” she said, climbing out of the sunroof and rooting her feet in the metal. She parted the sand ahead of them like a blade.

If she could see she was sure there would be a beautiful light on the horizon to signal their freedom.

But Toph was blind so to her, it was just dark.

 

* * *

 

**_You Cannot Own A Person_ **

 

Aang was free -mostly- he was linked to Zuko by the long chain at his wrist and there was still a chi-block cuffed to his forearm, but as Jet untied him from the rails he was more mobile than he had been in months, and he couldn't waste this opportunity.

A swift kick to Jet’s chest sent him falling backwards and another almost knocked him from the car. Aang brought his foot down on the white knuckles that curled around the rail, but Jet grabbed onto Aang’s boot and dragged him down.  Aang struggled backwards, finally slipping his foot free watching Jet roll off into the sand.

But before Aang could even sigh with relief, the wind -his own element- betrayed him as Zuko plunged the car into the storm. The prince hadn’t spared his fallen comrade the honour of a backwards glance as Jet’s slumped figure vanished behind a wall of sand, leaving Aang to battle against the storm alone.

Clinging to the rails, he pulled himself closer to the cab, inch by agonising inch. He stayed as low as he could, hoping to at least somewhat ease the barrage of tiny bullets that came from all sides.  Aang needed to knock Zuko out and drive until he was out of fuel and free again, but first and foremost, he needed to get out of this storm. His skin felt like a peeled peach and he couldn’t open his eyes for so much as a second without crying out in pain as they were flushed with sand, but he made it to the back window. He pressed his face to the glass and watched Zuko steer the car towards the rogue rig, that was dangerously close to a twister of sand and lightning.

Zuko was driving without fear of death or god, terrifying dedication burning in his eyes and he shouted prayers to Fire Nation spirits and oaths to Ozai. But Aang wasn’t going out this close to freedom then let it fly from his reach as the Prince earned his honourable death, he wrapped the excess chain and around his hand and slammed it into the window, cracking the thick glass. He pounded the glass over and over in quick succession, the damage lines spreading like lighting.  Zuko tugged at his end of the chain and it was all Aang could do to stop himself flying off the side of the car. Again, he was crawling towards the window.

His arms strained against the wind and the heat of the car until once again he reached the window. Zuko was looking ahead, fire flashing from his nostrils as Aang brought his fist down on the cracked window one final time. Glass shattered and blew back into his face, but he ignored the blood and launched himself at his captor.

Burning was a familiar sensation for Aang’s skin these days and while the flames might not have harmed Zuko, the smoke did. The coughing distracted him just barely long enough for Aang to make a move, he twisted the wheel, sending them spinning off course through the storm. The car flipped, the roof flew off into the winds and for a moment Aang was gliding through the air with it. Before he slammed into the side door and bounced back onto the sand.

His vision spotted as he strained to keep his eyes open, but the storm assaulted him with sand from every direction and unconsciousness called to him like a kindly healer; lulling him into the safety of sleep until at last he gave in.

And the desert swallowed him whole


	2. Hope is a Mistake

With one arm around Yue and one hand gripping Suki’s, Katara waited for the growling of the engine to die out so they could breathe again. The smuggling compartment of Toph’s rig was pitch dark but although she couldn’t see, she could guess Mai would be clinging to Ty Lee and Yue would be rubbing her stomach in the conflicted way she always did nowadays. The metallic scraping of Suki flicking her switchblade open and shut measured the time, counting down to the end. Katara prayed to spirits she couldn’t be sure existed that the end meant a safe haven, not a death sentence.

When at last the engine quieted Katara could feel the strings of fate around her throat. Footsteps and muffled words grew closer to them, and they could be Toph, or maybe not. Rusted metal rubbed uncomfortably against her back as she leant away from the gap that had been made in the entryway. A hand reached through it, pulling back the panel that hid them. In the agonising seconds they waited, Suki’s grip on Katara’s hand tightened painfully, and when the trap-door opened to a soldier as she flicked her blade out and launched forwards. But Katara held her back, a joy she didn’t know she was capable of anymore flooding her face as she jumped down from the rig and into Sokka’s arms.

“You’re really here!” She said, her head buried in his neck as he cried into her hair

“You’re alive!” He choked out, gripping her as if unable to believe his own words. His topknot had come down and her white robes were stained with engine grime, but they didn’t need Fire Nation uniforms any longer.

This was freedom, the air tasted like metal and the sand burned her feet but she may as well have been standing under a waterfall for how happy she felt. There were no walls or locks just endless stretches of horizon that she was free to live in.

“We’re really out, we made it!” Yue said while Suki span Ty Lee around and yelled with relief

“We aren’t safe yet.” Behind them, Mai was leant against the rig examining their freedom without so much as an upward quirk on her lips. “We’re not at the South Pole, this is just a desert”

“Lady Doom’s right,” Toph said, unhooking the hose from the rig “We need to get going. Snoozles, help me clear the dust from her engines, girls, have a drink and then get back in the hold”

“What about these?” Ty Lee asked, pushing the white fabric of her skirt aside to reveal the ugly metal locked onto her hips.

“I’m blind kid, what exactly are you trying to show me” Toph reminded them 

“Our... belts,” Katara explained, still clinging to her brother's arm “And my chi-blocker.” Toph nodded curtly, snapping Ty Lee's padlocks off between her fingers in two swift movements. Mai and Suki rushed over to receive the same, and Sokka grabbed a pair of bolt cutters to help Katara. The cages thudded into the sand and she kicked hers away. The discomfort of it cutting into her thighs had been nothing compared to the constant reminder that she was owned, that she was helpless.

“Your chi-block is too close to the skin, you’ll have to wait for Toph to do it,” Sokka said, and Katara would have done just that if the sound of a gun cocking hadn’t caught her attention first.

A boy in Fire Nation uniform was pointing a shotgun directly at Toph, there was another soldier draped over his shoulder and blue arrows poking out of his sleeves. On the horizon, Katara could make out the Fire Lord’s armada, hazy in the lines of heat, but undoubtedly real.

“Water.” the boy demanded, dropping his companion and jerking the gun towards Yue who held the still leaking hose. She looked to Toph, deference being Yue’s natural state, and the general nodded slowly and Yue walked towards the soldier, one hand drifting, shield-like, in front of her belly.

He drank like he was unsure when he would see water next, but never lowered his gun. He dropped the hose onto the sand in front of him and surveyed them again, his eyes falling on Sokka.

“Cut it.” He said, holding up the chain that attached him to the other soldier and jutting his chin towards Sokka’s bolt cutter.

Ever the level-headed, Sokka held his hands up and walked towards the man the way their father used to approach rabid polar bear dogs. If Katara had been anybody else, she wouldn’t have noticed the twitch of Sokka’s pinky,  a signal they had invented years ago, but it wasn’t meant for her today.

He secured the bolt cutters onto a link in the middle of the chain and in one swift movement he dragged the boy to the ground and Toph sent a ball of sand flying straight at him. The boy was fast, jumping to his feet to narrowly dodge the projectile, but Sokka used his moment of distraction to commandeer the shotgun, pulling the trigger against the man’s neck.

Katara flinched pre-emptively, but there was no shot. Just the click of a dud bullet and the sound of the boy’s fist colliding with her brother’s face. Toph raised a wall between the two and Sokka ran back to the rig for the spare gun, but the man flipped over the barrier with a practised leap and knocked Sokka off his feet, grabbing the gun a split second before Sokka might have had it.

“Come on!” Suki yelled, dragging Sokka out of the way before the boy could fire, Mai and Ty Lee grabbed the chain still around the boy’s wrist and pulled him onto his back. Suki scrambled towards the gun ejected the clip and, for a moment, It looked as though they had won. But it was at that moment the boy's companion proved to have been unconscious, rather than dead.

The other man rose from the sand spitting fire and the scar across his eye told all of them who exactly they were dealing with. He stormed towards the girls, fists blazing and Katara cursed the band around her arm as she was forced to back away. The boy wrestled the pistol back from Suki and Prince Zuko loaded it. Then he fired two shots in the air, and Toph raised her hands in surrender.

“Not bad Avatar,” The prince said, grabbing the bolt cutters and severing the chain  “If you stay and prove your loyalty, it’s goodbye to that cage for the both of us” He was too enthusiastic, like a child about to open a birthday gift, right before the Avatar knocked him out with the butt of the gun.


	3. You Keep Moving

Yue did not look behind her as she strode towards the cab

“We’re going to the South Pole.” She said, she would not think about the traitor Avatar or the unconscious prince or-

A gunshot stopped her in her tracks. In all of Yue’s sheltered existence she had seen thousands of rounds fired, but as a trickle of blood ran down her leg she realised that this was the first to be aimed at her.

“We are going to the South Pole.” she said again, her voice was soft as tears threatened to shake her apart, but the words were as clear as a prayer. Katara’s arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her back, but her words were already on the air

He’d left them. The Avatar, the last hope for their dead planet, had driven away and left them to the mercy of the army on the horizon. Around her the girls wanted to fall to their knees, she felt it, the heaviness that bloomed like mould in her blood as the rig got further and further away. But Toph’s lack of concern was soothing, and Yue watched as the Earthbender breathed in deep, took her stance, and sunk the wheels of the rig into the sand.

“Well don’t just stand there!” She barked and they stared at the half sunk truck not a hundred yards away from them “Let’s go!” And they did, running to the rig like a long lost lover. The tears Yue had been holding burst from her as a laugh, and she had to hold her belly as they ran.  The Avatar was smacking the wheel and cursing the spirits when they caught him, but Yue did not feel sorry for the boy 

“She’s a master” Katara’s brother half apologised “This rig is going nowhere.” The Avatar looked at them, and Yue knew what he saw, five white-robed girls with soft hands and clean hair. Five burdens in the wasteland.

“You can get in, and the soldier.” He said to Toph, his compromise was practical, but impossible.

“We all go,” Toph replied, the Avatar met her blank stare, unmoving “Or I bury you.”

“Let me handle this” Sokka whispered to Toph as she took a stance that would have probably ended up in her crushing the rig out of spite. Sokka leant into what had once been the widow of the cab “If we leave right now we’ve got a head start and I have a plan to lose those guys. Do you think the Fire Lord will spare you? The Avatar? His one and only threat?” The boy  didn’t move “You're supposed to be the saviour of this place!” Sokka was trying to guilt him now, but again, he got no reaction.

Yue could feel the tide of fear rising in her again as she felt her freedom begin to fall away. But then she noticed the curved metal band around the boy’s arm, the same uncomfortably tight constraint she had watched Katara rub her skin raw trying to remove.

“You want to bend again? She can unlock that.” Yue blurted out, gesturing to Toph, and it was as if she had spoken a password. The Avatar’s head snapped round and he pushed open the door to the cab. The girls scrambled into the back seats, and Sokka climbed onto the side.

“Alright,” Toph said, evening out the earth underneath them and sliding into the passenger seat with something that looked like pride on her face. “Drive, Avatar”


	4. No More Flames

The girls stared at the Avatar the way they used to stare at the Fire Lord, with fear masquerading as hate, and hate that manifested as fear.

He was younger than all of them, and while taller than he had been the last time Suki had seen him, his limbs were still too long for his body.

With one hand on the wheel and with the other shakily twisting Toph’s lockpick in the latch of his chi-block Aang reluctantly ushered them to freedom. But Suki was still cuffed to Ozai’s bed, the chain gained links with every inch further they got, but all the Fire Lord had to do was yank on it and they’d all fly back.

“We've got company.” Sokka slammed his fist against the side of the car in warning. With his helmet buried in the sand miles back, he looked human. He looked like the kind of human a Suki would have flirted with before flirting had been so utterly spoiled. She turned away from him and towards where he was pointing, at the army of cars approached on the horizon.

“What’s the story?” Toph asked, passing a pair of binoculars to Ty Lee.

“Zhao and his whole fleet,” She said, Suki saw Yue’s whole body shudder; it had been Zhao who sold her to Ozai, who burned down her home and murdered her family. Suki had heard stories of those raids, but Yue had not mentioned it once.

The rig jolted them forwards suddenly and Yue groaned as she reached down to cradle bump that stretched the flimsy fabric around her midriff, her breath short. Suki was struck with doubt again. Perhaps Ozai would have given up on finding them eventually, but that baby, the child whose inner fire blazed so strongly Yue’s skin felt hot to the touch. He would burn down the desert to find that child.

“Something’s wrong,” Toph said, as the car wobbled violently for a second time “There must be a screw loose out back, I need to go sort it out” The Avatar stared at her with shadows of suspicion in his eyes, and when Toph motioned for Sokka to follow her he intervened

“I’ll go with him.” the Avatar said, gesturing for Toph to take the wheel. His voice didn't shake, but Suki knew when a teenager was playing tough, she had been an expert.

“Why are you listening to him?” She asked, casual verging on smug as she made direct eye contact with the Avatar “He needs us.”

“He needs the car “ Mai hissed, her eyes begging Suki to shut up, but her goal was already complete. The Avatar was glancing from girl to girl as he climbed out of the car and jiggling the lockpick into his cuff with more force; he was scared, and the other’s noticed it. Hope dribbled back onto their faces like rain as the Avatar climbed out of sight. Sokka caught her eye as he passed the window, smiling with approval. Suki did not allow herself to smile back.

“Sugar Queen.” Katara had never liked the nickname, which was why Toph never failed to use it. “Gimme your cuff” Katara practically launched herself forwards, laughter bubbling up into her throat as Toph pinched the metal and pulled it apart. And as soon as it was off Suki saw Katara's pupils dilate until her irises were rings of blue sunlight around an eclipse. She sucked the humidity into a bubble at her fingertips, twirling it around her arm and up into the air.

“You should heal Yue.” Ty Lee suggested, gesturing to red patch seeping through the makeshift bandage around her leg.

“Save your water for when you need it,” Toph said without looking away from the road, “That won't kill her.” Katara nodded and shrugged apologetically, Yue pulled her knees as close to her chest as her belly would allow and tightened the bandage.

Suki might have protested that leaving Yue wounded weakened the group, but before she could Toph’s face flashed from shock to confusion, and then to fear.

“Get down!” She yelled as a body thrust itself up through the floor and into the cab. A scorching fist flew upwards from the trap door sending a fireball into the roof of the car.

Suki pushed Yue behind her as the prince they had left to die in the dust threw himself at Toph. But Toph was ready, the steel that had been Katara’s bending cuff was reborn as a knife, pressed against the Zuko's throat.

He snarled, the scar over his eye distorting his expression as he spat flames. Suki could see the passion, the unwavering belief that guided generals and foot soldiers alike. He wasn’t Azula who acted with calculation or Ozai who sought only to fulfil his own whims. He was a blind follower; a boy who knew nothing else.

“You are a  traitor to the Fire Nation!” He spat wrestling against Toph’s grip.

“I was never loyal.” She replied, pressing her dagger into his skin enough to draw out beads of blood, but Yue intervened before any damage could be done.

“Let him live,” She said, Toph looked back to glare her into silence, but Yue straightened her back and asserted herself “He’s as brainwashed as the rest of them, just toss him off the rig.”

“Are you crazy?” Katara hissed, her own spear of ice hovering at the Prince’s neck.

“Kill me and I will rise to Agni’s side with honour” he pronounced each word as if repeating them from a scroll, but he failed to hide the crack in his voice

“Let him live” Yue repeated, with a sternness that Suki hadn’t known her capable of, and she was no longer fighting his corner alone.

“She’s right.” the voice of agreement was a surprise, but one she really should have expected; Mai’s pale hand closed over’s Toph's and Ty Lee nodded firmly in support. Toph’s grip loosened slightly, but Katara’s dagger remained poised as she looked to Suki in outrage, silently imploring her to join her side. She hesitated, remembering the flames that had engulfed everything and everyone she’d ever known, remembering the face behind them, and remembering every single tear shed cried and fit she’d thrown in the back of Prince Zuko’s truck on the way to his father’s palace.  

But she also remembered the only time she had ever seen Mai break down in tears, recognising the look on her face now as she stared at the Prince. And Suki knew that this choice wasn’t hers.

“Just throw him out.” She said, looking away from the sting of betrayal on Katara’s face as Toph pulled her knife away. Katara made as if to protest, but instead, silently seething, she kicked open the door.

Zuko struggled, grabbing at seats and limbs and robes but it was no use Ozai might have treated them like porcelain ornaments, but they were not playing that tune anymore.

“You’ll never escape him!” He yelled, clawing at the bed of the cab

“Watch us,” Suki said, stamping her bare foot down on his hand

“He’ll chase that baby to the end of the wasteland.” he insisted, trying to catch the doorway with his feet

“Let him chase,” Yue said, as doubts began to creep back into Suki’s mind “I would rather die free than live a second longer in his home.” There was something in the Prince’s face when Yue said that, a flash of understanding, but Suki planted a solid kick to the centre of his chest before any of them could consider the meaning.

He grasped at Katara as his body hung out of the door, Suki’s kick had all but thrown him from the car but, desperate for a hold his fingers had hooked around Katara's necklace. And when he fell, he tore it off with him.

Katara cried out, almost falling after him as she reached for it, but Suki dragged her back and Katara added the tears to her bending water.

The men returned to the car, Toph did not fill them in.


	5. One Man; One Bullet

Mai was on the run from men she had once commanded and people she had once considered family, her allies were savages with tainted blood and impossible dreams, her bright future was probably bleeding to death on the sand.

But staying in the Fire Nation -belonging to Ozai for even a second longer- would have been infinitely worse.

Mai remembered Song and her five non-bending babies. Mai remembered her running from the palace with burns on her legs and not a single child in her arms.

She remembered Jin, who had been pretty and funny enough to draw Ozai’s favour, a favour that drained the humour from her faster than the razors drained her wrists.

Mai remembered many girls like Katara and Suki, with anger that raged like wildfire. She remembered other girls like Yue too, who understood submission but loathed every moment of it.

But there had only been one other girl like Mai.

One girl of noble birth, of pure blood, one girl with contracts and connections keeping her captive instead of chains. One girl raised on the cruelty of the fire nation, only to become a victim of it.

Ty Lee sat beside her, held her close, kept her steady. She was the only part of Mai’s life that hadn't changed, the only one Mai knew without a doubt would always take her side. But right now Mai didn’t want to hold hands and wait for death. If she was going to be a traitor, the least she could do was commit to it.

Mai snatched a gun up off the ground and aimed for the shoulder of the closest scout bike, she didn’t miss. She shot down rider after rider, barely noticing the twists and turns the rig was taking as she fell back into the rhythm she’d danced to for years. Suki joined her, falling into step as the Toph shook the earth behind them.

A bullet grazed the top of Suki’s ear and the man who had shot it fell to the sand with a hole in his hip. Katara’s little bubble began to snatch bullets out the air with impossible accuracy, and when Mai’s chamber emptied she passed it the gun to Ty Lee to reload, just like she always had.

They were outnumbered and out of practice, but they also held the distinct advantage of being wanted alive. Ozai’s soldiers were unusually cautious, and that tipped the scales just ever so slightly in their favour.

Sokka plunged the rig into a canyon and Toph brought down a landslide behind them. But of course, of all the cars to make it through, it had to be his.

Ozai was behind the wheel of his golden monstrosity, gleaming behind them he picked up speed. Azula stood tall out of the sunroof, her smile twisting as she caught Mai’s eye. But there was another face that distracted her, a face Mai had been foolish enough to show mercy today.

Zuko hung off the side of the trailer, his hair loose of his top-knot and his eyes looking past her at the Avatar. She wondered how he had clawed his way back to his father's side, she also wondered -only for a moment- why he hadn’t brought her with him. But there was no time for wondering now, the Fire Lord’s car inched closer and static was crackling at Azula’s fingertips. A bolt blue electricity arched over them and Mai ducked back down from the sunroof, Azula’s manic grin projected onto her closed eyes.

Flames and lightning began to surround them, the car absorbing heat like an oven as Ozai drew closer. Mai’s pessimism began to rear its head and she wondered if she should put her bullets to good use and ensure that he at least didn’t take them alive. Before Mai had the chance to ponder any further Yue, who had been hunched over in the middle seat with her head against her stomach, sat up.

“Let me pass,” She said to Katara, who was sat between her and the car door

“What? No!” Katara placed her hands on Yue’s shoulders, blocking her way “We can’t give up yet.”

“I’m not,” Yue said, placing a kiss on Katara’s forehead before climbing past her “He won't risk hurting me,” she said, kicking open the door “I'm carrying precious cargo” she reminded them, her free hand on her belly as she swung her body out in front of the fire. The flames died faster than a man with a bullet in his eye, and Yue stared straight at Ozai, unafraid.

Mai clambered over Suki to point her gun over Yue’s shoulder, following her gaze with a gunshot. Her bullet barely grazed his reinforced windscreen, so Mai shot again.

And again.

And again.

“Cool it.” Suki grabbed Mai’s hand, gesturing to their quickly dwindling pile of bullets. Mai was used to fighting with the Fire Lord and his seemingly endless supply of everything, but she couldn’t afford to miss shots anymore.  

Ozai was driving alongside them now and Azula’s blue flames licked the truck, but Yue did not back down and even Azula knew better than to damage her father’s favourite. A harpoon buried itself the side on the rig and sent them wobbling off course, Ozai was smiling as his men sat poised to snatch Yue from them, but he didn’t see how the chain of the harpoon swung dangerously loose, writhing wild between the two cars until if found something to tangle around; Yue’s perfect neck.

Katara screamed.

Yue’s legs buckled under her.

Sokka slammed the breaks.

Yue’s face darkened to a shade of purple

Suki grabbed desperately at the bolt cutters

Blood began to leak slowly from Yue’s throat

Toph pulled the chain apart in her hands.

Yue’s limp body lurched forwards out the open door

And Mai remembered that fighting Ozai was pointless.


End file.
